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RMAF 2013 Summary
I attended all three days, but had to cut the third day short due to my flight schedule. So let’s call it 2.2 days! ☺ I went to every room at least once and several many times.
As I read through the various RMAF reviews on TAS, I have to wonder what Jonathan Valin was listening to or hearing. My opinions much more closely mirror those of Neil Gader’s and some of the folks from Stereophile.
Let’s just get this out of the way first. To me, the XLF demo was incredible. It was so good, that I can't even consider it when discussing and comparing it to the other rooms. To me, it was on another planet. When they played Take the A Train, I thought I was back in the band again (I played lead alto sax in a 30 piece big band for many years). I closed my eyes, and I could imagine I was back there again.
Let’s start with the first room I visited – the Wilson Alexia/VTL demo. It consisted of a VTL S-400 Series II amp, DCS Vivaldi stack, VTL 7.5 preamp and a turntable with the new Lyra Etna cartridge. First impressions were not good (and I'm holding back my tongue here). I was the first person to that room for a listen on day one. I raced for the room at 11:55am because that combo was one of the reasons I went to RMAF. At 12pm exactly, I knocked on the door and Bea from VTL rather rudely told me to go away and slammed the door in my face. So, I waited. I should have left. But I waited. About 10 minutes later some other visitor came down the hallway, knocked on the door and she finally let us in. First impressions were downright awful. The sound was thin, bright and just nasty sounding. After listening to some poorly recorded classical record, she agreed to put on my CD, as she turned it up, pop! The amp shut down. The tool boxes came out and we left.
Thinking the terrible sound must have been related to an equipment failure, I returned to the room a few hours later, the next day several times and the day after that. It seemed to have gotten worse. The Absolute Sounds Neil Gader called it “almost too much to bear”. I call it “too much of a bad thing”. I sat and listened every time, and it seemed to just get progressively worse. I was scratching my head. Over the three days I returned many times. Every time I walked in they were playing classical music. Let's just say, I more than had my fill of classical musical. At the request of many of us in the room, they finally agreeing to put on Natalie Merchand (or anything but classical). Speaking with others around me, we all had heard the Alexia's sound much better in the Doshi room - or at demos elsewhere. The best the Alexia's sounded was the two times I've heard them on D'Agostino (once in Miami and once in Dallas). But I digress.....
On Saturday night, I sat at the bar with a fellow who told me "I was all set to buy the Alexia's, but after hearing them in the VTL room, I'm seriously doubtful now." I reassured him it was a combination of a mismatch of gear and the room and and and....he was reassured by how good they sounded in the Doshi/Paragon room and told him he must hear them with D'Agostino gear.
For me, the real big highlights were the Alexia's with Doshi, the Kronos table and the new Sony DSD DAC.
The Raidho/Jeff Rowland gear also sounded very good. I thought those Emerald Physics speakers were crazy good for the money. And of course, the MBL room. Always a blast. The new Sonus Faber Olympica’s sounded really good too and of course, the build quality is second to none. The PMC speakers sounded exceptionally good. In the battle for best bang for the buck was the Kismet Beryllium Reference speakers. A friend of mine loved the Broadman speakers, but to me, they were quite unusual and very expensive. If you sat on axis, they sounded just average. If you say off axis, they sounded pretty darn good. Side firing woofers I guess can have that affect with some speakers. Listening to the 1954 RCA LC1 speakers and little tube amps was fun. I could see me in a Barcalounger and a scotch smoking a cigar and enjoying some nice jazz!
For those that believe cables don’t matter, you can skip this section: At the Nordost demo, they played a track, removed the Valhalla power cord, installed a single Valhalla 2 power cord and WOW….a nice noticeable improvement.
The biggest surprise for me was how good the Focal/Aesthetix room sounded. This to me was the best sounding room at the show.
Biggest disappointments for me were the Vivid speakers. I had read so much about these speakers and were anxious to hear them, but when pushed, the tweeter became quite bright. The woofers had a very metallic sound to them at any level as well.
In addition, I had high hopes for the TAD E1’s with TAD electronics, setup by Andrew Jones and I was not impressed. I found the soundstage width very limiting. Now, with the Zesto tube gear, the E1’s improved quite a bit.
The VAC gear sounded excellent, but the Tannoy Westminister SE’s were a major disappointment. In addition, in each and every room I heard the AMG V12, I was not impressed. It didn’t sound any better (or worse) than my VPI Classic 3/Kleos combo. Now….the Kronos table was in a different stratosphere for sound quality compared to any other table I heard. It rivaled some of the best R2R’s I heard.
The Rockport Avoirs powered by the Absolare was not good (and I know its not the Absolare amp/preamp….I’ve heard these at Rhapsody and they sounded amazing). The Rockport’s I’ve auditioned three times and every time I wanted to run out of the room. At RMAF, that’s exactly what I did. Apologies to Kerem – but even his tremendous amps can’t make these speakers sound good.
I was interested to hear the Legacy speakers (the one’s we always see advertised in Stereophile and TAS. The one’s that seem to write their own reviews of their own products and then publish them – looking like a review – but with fine print that says “this is a paid advertisement”). Let’s just say Legacy is a good marketing company and we will leave it at that….
A pleasant surprise was the Akustik speakers from Australia. These were excellent speakers. Rich and full and detailed. Very nice….but a little expensive.
I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent listening to the Volti Vittora’s. Greg has done a wonderful job building a beautiful looking and beautiful sounding pair of speakers for a fair price. And he’s a hell of a nice guy! If I had the room for it…I could easily see myself with a pair of these and a sweet little SET tube amp.
The MBL room was always a blast and it was manned really well. The people working the room were attentive and on the ball. They always had a great variety of music playing and the room always sounded very good (despite obvious limitations). If I didn’t have such a bad room (with my A shaped roof)…MBL might just be that destination or exit speaker.
The Bryston room was really well put together. It was clean, neat and structured well. Most importantly, it sounded great. I would say this was one of the most musical sounding rooms I went into. I know James has been very proud of the Bryston speakers and now after hearing them for the first time, I know why! At their price point, these are MUST auditions and I would be quite surprised if you didn’t choose them. Bravo James & Co!
My “best value of show” award goes to the Emerald Physics CS2.3 MK2 loudspeakers. I still can’t believe these only cost $5950/pair and they were approximately half this price not too long ago. Whoever says you can’t have great sound on a more modest budget hasn’t heard these.
The most welcoming room award has to go the lovely husband and wife combination of Zesto. George and his wonderful wife Carolyn charmed everyone! I ran into them several times during the show and they are both terrific down to earth people. Carolyn made everyone that entered the room feel important (I can’t say that about every manufacturer!) Their products strike the right chord and their new amp is a real home run. Why can’t all high end audio companies be like this? Beautifully desined, great looking, great sounding products carefully built by great people.
Not everything at RMAF is sunny skies and roses. There was one room I went into where the man had obviously poured his heart and soul into his speakers, invested thousands of dollars to come to RMAF and I’m sure they just didn’t measure up to his expectations. I walked into his room twice, and both times it was dark and he was just sitting in the corner. The sound coming out of his speakers was not good at all. I felt sad for the guy.
Finally meeting John Atkinson and Michael Fremer was also a blast. We were all invited to an after hours party and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them. I’ve talked to them on the phone and via email – but never met them. Both were great guys, real down to earth.
I attended all three days, but had to cut the third day short due to my flight schedule. So let’s call it 2.2 days! ☺ I went to every room at least once and several many times.
As I read through the various RMAF reviews on TAS, I have to wonder what Jonathan Valin was listening to or hearing. My opinions much more closely mirror those of Neil Gader’s and some of the folks from Stereophile.
Let’s just get this out of the way first. To me, the XLF demo was incredible. It was so good, that I can't even consider it when discussing and comparing it to the other rooms. To me, it was on another planet. When they played Take the A Train, I thought I was back in the band again (I played lead alto sax in a 30 piece big band for many years). I closed my eyes, and I could imagine I was back there again.
Let’s start with the first room I visited – the Wilson Alexia/VTL demo. It consisted of a VTL S-400 Series II amp, DCS Vivaldi stack, VTL 7.5 preamp and a turntable with the new Lyra Etna cartridge. First impressions were not good (and I'm holding back my tongue here). I was the first person to that room for a listen on day one. I raced for the room at 11:55am because that combo was one of the reasons I went to RMAF. At 12pm exactly, I knocked on the door and Bea from VTL rather rudely told me to go away and slammed the door in my face. So, I waited. I should have left. But I waited. About 10 minutes later some other visitor came down the hallway, knocked on the door and she finally let us in. First impressions were downright awful. The sound was thin, bright and just nasty sounding. After listening to some poorly recorded classical record, she agreed to put on my CD, as she turned it up, pop! The amp shut down. The tool boxes came out and we left.
Thinking the terrible sound must have been related to an equipment failure, I returned to the room a few hours later, the next day several times and the day after that. It seemed to have gotten worse. The Absolute Sounds Neil Gader called it “almost too much to bear”. I call it “too much of a bad thing”. I sat and listened every time, and it seemed to just get progressively worse. I was scratching my head. Over the three days I returned many times. Every time I walked in they were playing classical music. Let's just say, I more than had my fill of classical musical. At the request of many of us in the room, they finally agreeing to put on Natalie Merchand (or anything but classical). Speaking with others around me, we all had heard the Alexia's sound much better in the Doshi room - or at demos elsewhere. The best the Alexia's sounded was the two times I've heard them on D'Agostino (once in Miami and once in Dallas). But I digress.....
On Saturday night, I sat at the bar with a fellow who told me "I was all set to buy the Alexia's, but after hearing them in the VTL room, I'm seriously doubtful now." I reassured him it was a combination of a mismatch of gear and the room and and and....he was reassured by how good they sounded in the Doshi/Paragon room and told him he must hear them with D'Agostino gear.
For me, the real big highlights were the Alexia's with Doshi, the Kronos table and the new Sony DSD DAC.
The Raidho/Jeff Rowland gear also sounded very good. I thought those Emerald Physics speakers were crazy good for the money. And of course, the MBL room. Always a blast. The new Sonus Faber Olympica’s sounded really good too and of course, the build quality is second to none. The PMC speakers sounded exceptionally good. In the battle for best bang for the buck was the Kismet Beryllium Reference speakers. A friend of mine loved the Broadman speakers, but to me, they were quite unusual and very expensive. If you sat on axis, they sounded just average. If you say off axis, they sounded pretty darn good. Side firing woofers I guess can have that affect with some speakers. Listening to the 1954 RCA LC1 speakers and little tube amps was fun. I could see me in a Barcalounger and a scotch smoking a cigar and enjoying some nice jazz!
For those that believe cables don’t matter, you can skip this section: At the Nordost demo, they played a track, removed the Valhalla power cord, installed a single Valhalla 2 power cord and WOW….a nice noticeable improvement.
The biggest surprise for me was how good the Focal/Aesthetix room sounded. This to me was the best sounding room at the show.
Biggest disappointments for me were the Vivid speakers. I had read so much about these speakers and were anxious to hear them, but when pushed, the tweeter became quite bright. The woofers had a very metallic sound to them at any level as well.
In addition, I had high hopes for the TAD E1’s with TAD electronics, setup by Andrew Jones and I was not impressed. I found the soundstage width very limiting. Now, with the Zesto tube gear, the E1’s improved quite a bit.
The VAC gear sounded excellent, but the Tannoy Westminister SE’s were a major disappointment. In addition, in each and every room I heard the AMG V12, I was not impressed. It didn’t sound any better (or worse) than my VPI Classic 3/Kleos combo. Now….the Kronos table was in a different stratosphere for sound quality compared to any other table I heard. It rivaled some of the best R2R’s I heard.
The Rockport Avoirs powered by the Absolare was not good (and I know its not the Absolare amp/preamp….I’ve heard these at Rhapsody and they sounded amazing). The Rockport’s I’ve auditioned three times and every time I wanted to run out of the room. At RMAF, that’s exactly what I did. Apologies to Kerem – but even his tremendous amps can’t make these speakers sound good.
I was interested to hear the Legacy speakers (the one’s we always see advertised in Stereophile and TAS. The one’s that seem to write their own reviews of their own products and then publish them – looking like a review – but with fine print that says “this is a paid advertisement”). Let’s just say Legacy is a good marketing company and we will leave it at that….
A pleasant surprise was the Akustik speakers from Australia. These were excellent speakers. Rich and full and detailed. Very nice….but a little expensive.
I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent listening to the Volti Vittora’s. Greg has done a wonderful job building a beautiful looking and beautiful sounding pair of speakers for a fair price. And he’s a hell of a nice guy! If I had the room for it…I could easily see myself with a pair of these and a sweet little SET tube amp.
The MBL room was always a blast and it was manned really well. The people working the room were attentive and on the ball. They always had a great variety of music playing and the room always sounded very good (despite obvious limitations). If I didn’t have such a bad room (with my A shaped roof)…MBL might just be that destination or exit speaker.
The Bryston room was really well put together. It was clean, neat and structured well. Most importantly, it sounded great. I would say this was one of the most musical sounding rooms I went into. I know James has been very proud of the Bryston speakers and now after hearing them for the first time, I know why! At their price point, these are MUST auditions and I would be quite surprised if you didn’t choose them. Bravo James & Co!
My “best value of show” award goes to the Emerald Physics CS2.3 MK2 loudspeakers. I still can’t believe these only cost $5950/pair and they were approximately half this price not too long ago. Whoever says you can’t have great sound on a more modest budget hasn’t heard these.
The most welcoming room award has to go the lovely husband and wife combination of Zesto. George and his wonderful wife Carolyn charmed everyone! I ran into them several times during the show and they are both terrific down to earth people. Carolyn made everyone that entered the room feel important (I can’t say that about every manufacturer!) Their products strike the right chord and their new amp is a real home run. Why can’t all high end audio companies be like this? Beautifully desined, great looking, great sounding products carefully built by great people.
Not everything at RMAF is sunny skies and roses. There was one room I went into where the man had obviously poured his heart and soul into his speakers, invested thousands of dollars to come to RMAF and I’m sure they just didn’t measure up to his expectations. I walked into his room twice, and both times it was dark and he was just sitting in the corner. The sound coming out of his speakers was not good at all. I felt sad for the guy.
Finally meeting John Atkinson and Michael Fremer was also a blast. We were all invited to an after hours party and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them. I’ve talked to them on the phone and via email – but never met them. Both were great guys, real down to earth.
